Looking Ahead Five Years: Jim Pickerell

In the story above Tom Grill offers his thoughts on where the stock photo business will be in five years. (If you haven’t read it yet click here.) While I agree with a lot of what Tom has to say, I believe the vast majority of photographers will find that stock photography will offer much less of an opportunity than the picture Tom paints. In the next five years it will become increasing difficult to earn a decent living, or even a profit, from producing still images on speculation. Remember profit is defined as revenue earned minus expenses and time invested to produce the product. There will always be a handful of photographers who are exceptions to the rule and buck the trends, but there will be fewer of them.

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Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.

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